


1 + 1 = ∞

by jusrecht



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, SHINee, Super Junior
Genre: Changkyu being dumb, Changkyu not knowing what they are, Changkyu who defies any label, Changkyu who has their own definition, Gen, Kyuline, Other, bromance ofc but what are they, changkyu the ultimate bffs, friends with so many benefits, idk what this is, this is mostly crack i think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-04-29 10:45:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5124605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jusrecht/pseuds/jusrecht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Changmin and Kyuhyun are close. The problem is, they don't realise that they are that close. (mostly gen, crack)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Home

**Author's Note:**

> yes this is gen. and crack, hence their relationship as described here.

Changmin wakes up with an elbow to his stomach.

 

He grunts low in his throat, jolted into consciousness. A moment of disorientation follows as he squints at the dark mess in front of his eyes. It takes him a few bleary seconds before the shape and proximity finally makes sense.

 

He is staring at Kyuhyun’s hair.

 

Changmin’s heartbeat returns to its normal, steady cadence as he eases back into the pleasant haze of half-consciousness. It's still dark out and he likes where he is at the moment, cosy and warm and vaguely content. Everything is a faraway sensation, a rivulet of indistinct pictures and impressions as they wash over him in small trickles. Even the ache of his recent breakup is distant, almost negligible through gauzy curtains of sleep.

 

One unassailable fact stands out, crystal clear in the middle of the blurred, mellow stream: Kyuhyun’s presence throughout it all.

 

Instinctively, Changmin tightens his arm around Kyuhyun’s waist and shifts even closer, his front moulding to Kyuhyun’s back. His lips brush against the curve of Kyuhyun’s bare throat and his best friend’s all-too-familiar scent fills his nose. Only the alcohol smell is missing, a sign of their camaraderie during Kyuhyun’s comeback weeks—but Kyuhyun is Kyuhyun. Their bond is old and familiar and it leaves him with a quiet sense of security. Of home and quiet nights lying side by side talking about a hundred mundane things at once.

 

A soft, unintelligible sound comes from the sleeping bundle in his arms, but Kyuhyun does not wake. He does, however, lean back into Changmin's warmth, his movements weighed down by sleep, heavy and uncoordinated. Changmin smiles, a vague, sleepy smile that settles as comfortably on his lips as everything else seems to at the moment.

 

In a few weeks, he’ll be gone to serve his country. A dull ache appears in his lower stomach at the thought, but it's an old acquaintance by now, easily recognised and ignored. Not yet. He will face it head on when the time comes, but for now, he still has this sliver of a moment, where everything is pleasant and right and just as it should be.

 

A few heartbeats later, he already drifts back to sleep, happy and content.

 

_**End**  
_


	2. That Lame BFF Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changmin and Kyuhyun, from Minho's POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A birthday present for [marauders](http://archiveofourown.org/users/marauders/pseuds/marauders) :D
> 
> And remember when I said it's crack? Yeah orz

  


The first time it happened in front of his eyes, Minho froze and did not move for the next fifteen minutes or so.

 

The three of them were close. It was a fact as indisputable as the sun is bright and the snow is cold. The KYULINE members were close, but KYULINE was one thing.

 

Changmin and Kyuhyun were another thing entirely. They were _the_ ChangKyu, the special brand of BFFs which had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of 2010 to everyone’s amazement. Not that they hadn’t been close before, but to compare the ‘before’ and the ‘after’ was like comparing a meek little candle to a roaring inferno. Now they were something else utterly, sitting at that incomparable zenith along with births and deaths, beginnings and endings, alphas and omegas and all the inevitabilities that governed the universe.

 

If Minho felt a little bit like the odd man out from time to time, then it would be nothing out of the ordinary—and something which he had come to quietly accept. He liked them; he liked spending time with them; and if they happened to be closer to each other, then it was perhaps only natural since it was _them_ who had literally been born only two weeks apart.

 

Nothing, however, could quite prepare him for the revelation which had blindsided him just now.

 

They had been chatting around fourteen kinds of nonsense in the midst of barbeque and alcohol, starting from last week’s SMTOWN concert in Japan to girls and boobs and bikes and eyelash curlers as well as Austria and Australia and somehow digressing to the finer points of white kimchi somewhere in between.

 

Then The Subject stumbled in out of nowhere. The Great Taboo. The You Know What Happened Two Years Ago. Changmin’s eyes gained this hard, defensive look which told Minho that it would be _decades_ before anyone could safely mention those three particular ghosts in his presence. His fingers twitched around his glass, but he made a heroic effort to provide a short, perfunctory reply before lapsing into stony silence.

 

It was what Kyuhyun did, however, which made Minho blink. Blink and then stare for a long, long time.

 

There was a quick, deliberate brush of shoulder to shoulder, followed by a low but stern 'hey'; then Kyuhyun reached up, tapping the side of Changmin’s cheek to tilt his head in Kyuhyun’s direction, a clear demand for his attention. Changmin pursed his lips but met his gaze, reluctant as it was. A moment of wordless communication ensued, and Minho realised that he had been biting his lower lip in suspense when the corners of Changmin’s lips finally gave an involuntary twitch.

 

Kyuhyun smiled then, a small, victorious smirk. “Drink,” he told Changmin, nodding at the half-full glass in front of him.

 

Changmin rolled his eyes and heaved a long, exaggerated sigh, but followed the suggestion without further protest. It did not take long for tension to seep out from the set of his shoulders, or for the hard, heavy pain in his eyes to disappear gradually, leaving only a soft, resigned sigh in its wake as he quietly leaned against Kyuhyun, nosing the side of his face like it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

And no, neither of them was drunk—or at least nowhere near drunk enough to warrant that sort of behaviour in public. Minho nearly bit his tongue when Kyuhyun’s hand casually settled low on Changmin’s hip, stroking slowly. Anyone with eyes could see it. People were passing near their table and there were waitresses watching the entire room from their stations. Minho should probably say something—a word, a warning, even a squeak—but for the life of him, his mouth and throat didn't seem willing to cooperate.

 

He had started watching them more closely since then.

 

Whatever Changmin and Kyuhyun were to each other, they were definitely not trying to hide it. The touches occurred often (it was a miracle Minho had not noticed it before) and yet, at the same time, they were overwhelmingly casual and entirely unconscious. Changmin would drape an arm around Kyuhyun’s shoulders, or across Kyuhyun's back, and Kyuhyun would lean in too closely, _much_ too comfortably in response. Other times, Minho would find Kyuhyun sprawled on top of Changmin, long limbs twining as they watched a video on Changmin's phone. Every now and then, someone would raise an eyebrow, but any confusion, any curiosity, any _suspicion_ , would soon smooth over in the face of their lack of self-consciousness. Most people didn’t even bat an eyelash afterwards, merely chalked it down as another quirky chapter in the True Tales of the World’s Greatest BFFs.

 

It took Minho weeks to work up the necessary courage (with the aid of a certain dose of inebriation) and finally, _finally_ poke at the subject.

 

“So,” he blurted out when Kyuhyun went to the toilet. It was two in the morning and they were sprawled in the Cho family’s living room after trying to beat the hell out of each other in WE. “How long have you two been… you know.”

 

Changmin fixed a pair of blank eyes at him. “Us two what?”

 

“Kyuhyun-hyung and you.”

 

“What about us?”

 

“You two are very close.”

 

“We met when he was a new trainee. You knew that, right?”

 

Minho blinked at the answers—was this evasion tactic? “Yes, I do, but what I mean is, how long have you two been… more than friends?”

 

The look Changmin gave him was one of pure, total incredulity, complete with a puzzled frown and a small habitual pout that never seemed to leave his face. Or maybe he was just that good of an actor. “More than friends? What are you talking about? Like that lame BFF thing?”

 

Minho suddenly wished that a hole would open up in the ground to swallow him whole; at least it would spare him the pain of this conversation. “I thought…” he paused, scrambling for a more tactful way to phrase the question but finding absolutely none. “Aren’t you two… dating?”

 

Changmin stared at him, mouth agape.

 

Which, in retrospect, had been far, _far_ better than what soon followed, specifically the moment when Changmin toppled backward and dissolved into that long, loud, obnoxious laughter of his. If Minho hadn’t felt stupid before, he certainly was now.

 

The humiliating laugh hadn’t stopped two minutes later, when Kyuhyun came back with another six-pack in hand.

 

“What the hell?”

 

Changmin glanced up at him, tears in his eyes. “Craziest thing I’ve ever,” and he was overwhelmed by another bout of hysterical laugh. Minho kept his head down, face burning in mortification. He simply couldn’t bring himself to meet Kyuhyun’s eyes or attempt even the briefest answer with his leaden tongue.

 

“He thought we were dating,” Changmin finally gasped between wheezes of laughter after a few annoyed kicks from an impatient Kyuhyun.

 

Minho resigned himself for another round of acute embarrassment because _of course_ he would get the same reaction from Kyuhyun, they were practically two peas in a pod when it came to torturing Minho. Except no, not really, because all Kyuhyun did was look at him, a tiny line between his eyebrows.

 

“But why would you think that?” he asked, sounding baffled.

 

“Never mind.” Minho suddenly found his voice, jumping to his feet at the same time. However, the amount of alcohol in him made his escape attempt less than smooth, because Kyuhyun easily tackled him back down, pinning him down with his weight.

 

“Why,” he reiterated, using a tone which sounded more like _answer me now, bitch,_ and Minho soon heard himself blabbering his entire hypothesis and spawned theories in the span of one breath. The look on Kyuhyun’s face transformed from a confused frown to a really ugly grimace—and Minho had just started praying for his life when Kyuhyun suddenly sighed.

 

“We’re not dating.” His voice was matter-of-fact as he got up to retrieve a beer before slumping back to Changmin’s side. _Changmin_ , who slid an arm around Kyuhyun’s waist and buried his face in Kyuhyun’s neck, shoulders shaking with fresh giggles. “And there’s not enough bribe in this world to make me date him.”

 

“Hey! As if there were anything in the entire _universe_ that could force me to–”

 

Ten minutes of trading insults followed, during which Minho gladly used the opportunity to sort his thoughts and calm himself, now that the object of their volleys had shifted. If Changmin had his arm around Kyuhyun afterwards as they giggled and snuggled up together while Minho chose a crappy zombie movie to end today's KYULINE session, well, he was not going to open his mouth ever again on the subject.

 

Although he did wonder about a thing or two, like how did it feel to have a Changmin or a Kyuhyun that close? Also did they watch porn like that, probably lending each other a helping hand–

 

Minho mentally smacked his head. God, he needed to stop thinking about this.

 

And yes, maybe Changmin and Kyuhyun's friendship was weird, and maybe they liked having each other far closer than any normal, run-of-the-mill definition of “good friends” allows—but then again, run-of-the-mill had never described them in the first place and any bigoted, narrow-minded ass who dared to judge could shove there bigoted, narrow-minded opinion up their bigoted, narrow-minded ass, because from where he was standing, watching Changmin and Kyuhyun cutely and inebriatedly paw at each other, Minho could say for certain that it was nobody else’s goddamn business.

 

Totally and utterly nobody’s but theirs.

 

**_End  
_ **

 


	3. Last Night on Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night before Changmin enlists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from a Green Day song.

 

Kyuhyun isn’t good with goodbyes.

 

His usual formula when one occurs is to linger awkwardly in the background, away from anybody’s line of sight, and silently wish that it would end soon. There might be a clumsy hug or two, during which he generally keeps his eyes on the ceiling/sky/whatever is up because if there is something he finds even more distressing than goodbyes, then it will be sad goodbyes with manly tears.

 

But this is Changmin, and the thing about Changmin is he makes up a whole new alien definition for himself in the context of their ChangKyu equation. And so when Changmin drops in under the pretext of entrusting his lego collection in Kyuhyun’s care, it’s all Kyuhyun can do not to tackle his best friend to bed and curl up against him until the damn apocalypse rolls in.

 

Instead, he swallows the lump in his throat and tips Changmin’s cap off to stroke his newly shorn hair. Changmin glares and sighs in his general direction, but lets him do as he wishes, and for a moment everything is fine and normal.

 

That is, until Changmin abruptly turns away mid-sentence—he’s been mouthing off about winter and cold and being practically bald in the middle of the unfriendliest month—and trots over to the window. He says nothing for a long time and Kyuhyun says nothing for a long time, although his throat is chock-full of things unsaid. He sees the line of tension that is Changmin's spine, the wrought stiffness of his shoulders, and can easily imagine the rest: the frown, the panic-bright eyes, the thinly pressed lips and hard grinding teeth behind them.

 

“You know.” When Changmin finally speaks, his voice sounds nothing like him, too low and heavy and intense. “It’s silly because everyone does it, even guys so much younger than we are, so it really shouldn’t matter so much. But here I am anyway, scared shitless like a stupid little worm.”

 

It takes about three counts of heartbeat for Kyuhyun to rise, walk over, and take his best friend into his arms. Changmin inhales sharply but it’s surprise, not rejection, and when Kyuhyun locks his fingers together on the hollow under Changmin’s ribs, Changmin’s hands immediately come to cover them.

 

“Is it weird if I’m scared?” Changmin is musing aloud and the fingers that cling to Kyuhyun’s hands are more like claws, tight and desperate.

 

Kyuhyun snorts.” Are you kidding me? Pretty sure I’ll be fucking terrified when my turn comes.”

 

There’s a soft, shaky laugh and Changmin’s death grip settles into a gentler cradle. “No one will be here to do this to you when it’s your turn.”

 

“Nah, won't need it. I’m tougher than you.”

 

This time, Changmin’s bark of laughter is less hollow and far, _far_ more genuine. “Sure, keep telling yourself that, jerk,” he mutters, fondness and exasperation knitted together like they are supposed to. The tightness in Kyuhyun's chest loosens a little and he leans his head against the curve of Changmin's shoulder, quietly wishing that he could protect his best friend from everything and anything.

 

He likes how it feels, Changmin’s strong back against his front, Changmin’s thumb affectionately rubbing across the ridges of his knuckles. Here, like this, the clamour of thoughts in his head settles into a hum of perfectly harmless white noise because everything else comes second, after Changmin’s back and Changmin’s thumb and just _Changmin_.

 

Kyuhyun is content not to think about tomorrow.

 

“You still sound like shit tho,” Changmin suddenly speaks again, thumb pausing in the valley between Kyuhyun’s index and middle fingers.

 

“What?”

 

“Your voice.” Changmin turns his head to catch Kyuhyun’s eyes, complete with a frown to emphasise his point. “Take a good care of yourself while I'm gone, alright?”

 

An easy smile slips to Kyuhyun’s lips. “Aaww, Chwang, didn't know you care.”

 

“Ass.” Changmin elbows him sharply, disentangling himself. “I’m serious. Get more than four hours of sleep every night. You’re old now, you know? And stay away from the god of soju.”

 

Kyuhyun glares at him. “Don’t blaspheme against the god of soju.”

 

Changmin rolls his eyes and it’s a gesture so painfully familiar that Kyuhyun has to bite his tongue to stifle a small, pitiful noise. “Just… don’t drink too much. And stick close to Minho. The kid adores you.”

 

“Please, he adores you more.”

 

“Nah, it’s you.” The flash of Changmin’s grin is a little bit too bright, a little bit too sharp. “And we’re done talking about this. Keep him close, okay? He’ll be worried sick because he thinks you can’t live without me or something.”

 

Kyuhyun has a scoff and a smirk and a ‘yeah, right’ with a perfectly eloquent eye-roll at the ready. None of them actually materialises because he hears _without me_ and imagines _without Changmin_ and it simply does not compute.

 

“He probably thinks you’ll drink yourself stupid, or drown in your own tears,” Changmin says again, a shadow of his usual smirk on his face.

 

Kyuhyun blinks, then pushes past the lump in his throat and beats his stiff facial muscles into submission to form something approaching a scowl because it always takes two to tango.

 

“Dude, I’m not your needy clingy girlfriend.”

 

“Of course not.” Changmin’s face is a study of contradictions, some parts mocking and other parts painfully genuine. “You’re so much more than that.”

 

Kyuhyun swears under his breath and stalks away. Behind him, Changmin is laughing obnoxiously at him and his ‘virginal blush’ and ‘please, you can’t even take it like a man’ and God, he hates his best friend.

 

But later, when they end up sprawled in front of the TV and Kyuhyun has his head on Changmin's stomach and Changmin's fingers are a comfortable weight on his scalp, he thinks about the days ahead and somehow, somehow can convince himself that they will be okay.

 

“Hey,” he pokes Changmin all the same, “tell me if it sucks, okay?”

 

Changmin looks at him. “It sucks.”

 

Kyuhyun scowls and bitches a little, but he hears the _because you’re not there_ anyway.

 

_**End** _

 


	4. The Thing about Habit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changmin is a habit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk where this came from orz

 

Kyuhyun is never one for impulses.

 

But it has been a long day and he has a headache. A terrible pounding that he has come to associate with hitting too many high notes in a short span of time. His throat itches too, and alcohol is probably something it really can go without—except there is something about bad days that render common sense moot, even irrelevant.

 

So he sends Changmin a text message for a late-night drink ( _just a little, I swear_ —and he doesn’t say _because I kinda, sorta miss your sorry ass_ , mostly because who the hell says that kind of thing outside TV dramas). Then he drags himself into the shower to wash the day’s grime off, luxuriating in the god-sent wonder that is pressurised hot water.

 

A crash into his nice-smelling bed is almost enough to make him give up any plan for the night that does not involve sleeping in said bed. But his hair is still wet and his throat still itches and so Kyuhyun drags himself out of bed with a groan in search of water. Along the way, he makes a stop to check his phone.

 

No reply yet.

 

For the next ten minutes or so, he dutifully goes through the mechanical motions of keeping his throat hydrated as he lies sprawled in his bed, replying to chat messages from his manager and scrolling through Twitter. A new song in Melon’s Top 100 fills the silence with little more than a din of unpleasant noises strung together by a mindless beat.

 

Three songs later, Changmin still hasn’t replied. Kyuhyun frowns at the unusually slow response, but somewhere between the scrolling up and rereading Changmin’s last messages, he remembers that Changmin is _not_ there.

 

The realisation is a punch to the stomach and Kyuhyun quickly stuffs his phone under the pillow before the hurt can crystallise, and escapes from the confines of his bedroom and the ghost of Changmin’s grins.

 

It’s such a small, easy blunder, made possible only through combined habit and exhaustion, but everything goes downhill from there. The too silent dorm has nothing to offer him but whispers of the past, made golden by the bleak present. It takes him four quick mindless steps to realise that he is heading for Hyukjae’s now empty bedroom.

 

Kyuhyun falls asleep hours later, in front of the TV on full volume.

 

_**End** _

 


	5. I'll Stand by Your Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changmin's last SMTown. After Bolero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This super short drabble happened bcos [bl4ckm4lice](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bl4ckm4lice/pseuds/bl4ckm4lice) and I were watching Kyuhyun's vids and ended up with freaking [Bolero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZpxk-eWdSE) and srsly the rest is history.

  


Changmin leaves the stage and tumbles into his best friend’s arms.

 

There are tears streaming down his face and it feels like he’s both flying and drowning at the same time. Only Kyuhyun keeps him grounded here, now, with a fierceness that stitches emotions and links souls together.

 

Changmin clings to him, breathing against his neck, hearts wrecking themselves against each other.

 

“It’s not just a line for me.” Kyuhyun’s voice is hoarse, cracked by emotions. “You know that, right?”

 

Changmin manages a faint nod. People are milling around them and Chen has disappeared some time ago, but Kyuhyun is _here,_ holding all the pieces that are Changmin, all the sorrow and desperation and insecurities—and for Changmin, this, it, them, is enough.

 

Time loses all meanings until an assistant appears and reminds him anxiously that he has a flight to catch. Kyuhyun loosens his hold, but does not let go until Changmin mutters a weak ‘yeah’ and leaves the circle of his arms.

 

“Hey.” But then he says, gently, forehead pressed against Changmin’s. “Remember that you owe me a barbecue for this.”

 

Changmin laughs. Now he can breathe again.

 

_**End** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 'words' Kyuhyun mentioned are that bridge part in Bolero that he sang: Forever / I will watch over you / Wherever you go / I will protect you
> 
> Excuse me while I drown in ChangKyu feels.


End file.
